• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Germany’s auto show tries for more climate friendly image

September 5, 2021 by David Barret Leave a Comment

September 5, 2021

By Victoria Waldersee and Nick Carey

MUNICH (Reuters) – Germany’s biggest motor show, taking place in Munich this week, is no longer just about cars.

This year’s IAA show, the first major motor industry event worldwide since the COVID-19 pandemic, wants to be about mobility in general, from bikes to e-scooters to cars.

“Climate-friendly engines, the digital connectivity of transport – that’s what this fair is about,” Hildegard Müller, president of industry association VDA, which organises the bi-annual show, said at a pre-event press conference last week. “The goal of climate protection is guiding us.”

The show, which has shifted this year from Frankfurt to Munich and is themed “Mobility of the Future”, is a far cry from its usual format showcasing the biggest and mightiest cars on the market. The pandemic and growing concern over climate change have cast an uncomfortable shadow over the event, already under pressure from waning attendance numbers in previous years – from 930,000 in 2015 to just 560,000 in 2019.

Indeed, many industry stalwarts have decided against showing up: Toyota, Jaguar’s Land Rover, Stellantis – including its German brand Opel – and Ferrari, to name a few.

Yet, as construction workers scrambled on Sunday to put up remaining exhibition booths ahead of the official opening on Tuesday, cars were clearly still the dominant feature. A lone CANYON e-bike tent was distinctly outnumbered by far larger, glitzier carmaker stands from Mercedes-Benz, Audi, MINI and others.

Activists and environmental groups, too, point out that for all the talk of mobility and diversified transport, automakers still make the vast majority of their money from fossil-fuel emitting SUV sales.

“Adding ‘mobility’ to the event’s name and pushing their e-models to the fore won’t do the trick as long as they keep selling primarily gas-guzzling combustion engines,” Marion Tiemann, transport expert for Greenpeace in Germany, said, branding the event a “greenwashing bonanza”.

Environmental groups including Friends of the Earth Germany and Greenpeace plan a major demonstration on Saturday against the greenwashing of the auto industry and for a faster shift to sustainable mobility. Activist organisation Sand im Getriebe (‘Sand in the Gears’), which smashed up 40 luxury vehicles at a dealership near Frankfurt before the last IAA in 2019, has promised “mass civil disobedience” at this year’s event.

Up to 4,500 police will be on site during the show which ends next Sunday, the biggest police presence for an event in Munich in 20 years.

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, Nick Carey, Writing by Victoria Waldersee, Editing by Susan Fenton)

Source Link Germany’s auto show tries for more climate friendly image

David Barret
David Barret

Related posts:

  1. Best WordPress hosting of 2021
  2. Inflation shock and ECB hawks keep euro near 1-month high
  3. Soccer-Ronaldo claims world record with late late show
  4. U.N. warns catastrophe looms in Ethiopia’s north, urges government to end de facto aid blockade

Filed Under: News

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • Why Are So Many Enormous Roman Shoes Being Discovered At Hadrian’s Wall?
  • Scientists Think They’ve Pinpointed Structural Differences In Psychopaths’ Brains
  • We’ve Found Our Third-Ever Interstellar Visitor, Orcas Filmed Kissing (With Tongues) In The Wild, And Much More This Week
  • The “Eyes Of Clavius” Will Be Visible On The Moon Today, Thanks To Clair-Obscur Effect
  • Shockingly High Microplastic Levels Found On Remote Mediterranean Coral Reef Island
  • Interstellar Object, Cheesy Nightmares, And Smooching Orcas
  • World’s Largest Martian Meteorite Up For Auction Could Reach Whopping $2-4 Million
  • Kimalu The Beluga Whale Undergoes Pioneering Surgery And Becomes First Beluga To Survive General Aesthetic
  • The 1986 Soviet Space Mission That’s Never Been Repeated: Mir To Salyut And Back Again
  • Grisly Incident In Yellowstone National Park Shows Just How Dangerous This Vibrant Wilderness Can Be
  • Out Of All Greenhouse Gas Emitters On Earth, One US Organization Takes The Biscuit
  • Overly Ambitious Adder Attempts To Eat Hare 10 Times Its Mass In Gnarly Video
  • How Fast Does A Spacecraft Need To Go To Escape The Solar System?
  • President Trump’s Cuts To USAID Could Result In A “Staggering” 14 Million Avoidable Deaths By 2030
  • Dzo: Hybrids Beasts That Are Perfectly Crafted For Life On Earth’s Highest Mountains
  • “Rarest Event Ever” Had A Half-Life 1 Trillion Times Longer Than The Age Of The Universe – How Did We See It?
  • Meet The Bille, A Self-Righting Tetrahedron That Nobody Was Sure Could Exist
  • Neurogenesis Confirmed: Adult Brains Really Do Make New Hippocampal Neurons
  • RFK Jr Suggested Letting Bird Flu Run Through Farms – Experts Still Think It’s A Bad Idea
  • “For Unknown Reasons”: Mystery Of The Oldest Human Remains Ever Found In Antarctica
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version